Quick and Easy (Warriors 102, Jazz 88)

We’re only 10 games into the season, but a pattern is emerging. When the Warriors play sub-.500 teams, they waste no time in disposing of them. By the end of the first quarter, the Warriors typically have a cushion to nurse through the remainder of the game. Starting with the Lakers (10 point lead), followed by the Kings (10 point), the 76ers (14 point lead), the Pistons (19 point lead), and holding true again with the Jazz (14 point lead) on Saturday night, the Warriors’ starters have done their work early. These early leads aren’t just the sign of a very good team, they’re a survival mechanism to get the Warriors’ core through what will hopefully be a long season.

The Warriors had a sober reminder of how important their health will be this season when they saw Jermaine O’Neal go down with what could be a serious knee injury. Initially diagnosed as just a sprain, we’ll learn soon how long the Warriors’ reserve will be out. His absence will exacerbate their problems with consistent bench play. While O’Neal struggled early in the season on offense, he had been a steady presence on defense and the glass. If he’s going to miss significant time, it’ll likely force Mark Jackson to play more minutes with Lee at center, bumping him above what had been an ideal 30 minutes per game so far this season. The other options are more Bogut or Speights. Bogut plays such a physical game that it’s difficult to run him for more than 8-10 minutes at a stretch. His foul trouble also typically serves as a limit on his minutes. Speights can handle limited minutes at center, but the Warriors give up a ton in rebounding and defense when he’s they’re only player in the post. The perfect solution to the Warriors’ problems — Festus Ezeli — is unfortunately in a suit until January at the earliest. While it’s an exaggeration to call an injury to a seventh man a serious blow to the team, Mark Jackson’s rotations just got a bit more complicated.

Bench questions aside, Saturday’s 102-88 win was another showcase for how soundly the Warriors are dominating their opponents. Thompson (5-8) and Iguodala (3-5) bombed from behind the arc, Bogut owned the paint (11 rebounds, 2 blocks) and Curry orchestrated the entire affair with 0 turnovers. There are subtle signs that some of the early-season growing pains are disappearing as they grow more familiar with each other on the court. There are fewer botched passes and blown plays, more communication on defense and beautifully-timed fast breaks (Iguodala slapping the ball ahead to a breaking Green was a work of art). Most impressive was the Warriors’ smothering perimeter defense — courtesy of Iguodala, Thompson and Barnes. Their leading victim on Saturday was Gordon Hayward, who was held nearly 6 points below his average on 5-12 shooting. If you can force your opponent’s best scorer into a below-average night, you’ll always have a fighting chance.

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With O’Neal joining Douglas among the injured bench players, the Warriors’ rotation continues to shorten. Jackson leaned heavily on his core six players to bring home the win, and stuck with them until there was no risk of a late-game meltdown. Here’s what stood out for me in an otherwise routine win:

Klay Thompson — I hate to jinx it, but we’ve now seen three straight games with Thompson shooting over 60%. Consistency is his biggest obstacle in taking the leap to the next level, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can keep up this aggressive play. Thompson delivered the dagger shots on Saturday, finally killing any hope of a late Utah run. No one was happier to see Thompson step up that Stephen Curry, who had an off night from the field (Curry had multiple exaggerated fist pumps when Thompson connected on his final three; Iguodala just walked past them both with a sly smile on his face). This is exactly how the Warriors’ sharp-shooting tandem is supposed to work. So long as one of them is connecting from deep on any given night, the floor is spaced and the Warriors’ offense can click along at its usual impressive pace.

Andre Iguodala — Also in the “don’t want to jinx it” category, Iguodala is shooting an amazing 61% from the field for the season. He’s in good company. The only non-post player close to him in the rankings is LeBron. There are a few factors in play contributing to the newest Warriors’ sharp shooting. The team’s ball movement along and all the defensive attention given to Curry and Thompson allow Iguodala lots of unguarded looks from deep. When scrambling perimeter defenders are forced to decide whether to run at Iguodala, leaving Curry or Thompson open, they usually opt to stay home. Iguodala also exercises great judgment in picking his shots. If the open look isn’t there, he rarely forces it, looking instead to find a teammate with a better option. Now if only he could raise his free throw percentage (.55) up to the level of his percentage from the field.

Andrew Bogut — In addition to his typically gutsy defensive performance (Kanter went 5-12 with only 5 rebounds), Bogut gave the Warriors some nice offensive contributions. His teammates are getting him the ball when he’s slashing to the basket, saving him from having to put it on the floor more than once or get stuck in a post-move/hook-shot situation. He converted on 5-7 looks. His 2 misses were attempts at thunderous dunks that either slipped or were swatted away. Slowly but surely, Bogut seems to be regaining confidence in his offensive moves. If he can keep it up, it’ll be a valuable extra dimension for the Warriors to deploy against opponents tougher than the Jazz.

Stephen Curry — The Jazz were physical with Curry from the opening tip, and it seemed to knock him off his game a bit. He managed open looks, but was having to work particularly hard off the ball to get them. Sensing that it might not be his night from the field, Curry focused more on being a distributor. 11 assists with 0 turnovers would be an impressive line for any point guard, but the degree of difficulty in some of the passes Curry makes means that the figure is even more impressive. After a rash of early season turnovers, Curry seems to have toned down his passing ever so slightly to help keep better control of the ball, and his teammates are also more comfortable with the offensive sets and when they might receive the ball from their gifted distributor.

David Lee — Derrick Favors is going to punish opposing power forwards for the next decade, so Lee shouldn’t feel too badly that the Jazz’s star-in-the-making got the better of their matchup. Favors is the archetype for the type of quick, strong, and physical power forward that always seems to give Lee trouble. Lee wasn’t particularly bad defending Favors — there were only one or two mental breakdowns where Favors scored effortlessly — but Lee also wasn’t doing much to make his life more difficult. Still, Lee won back most of those points at the other end. Given the Warriors’ advantages at every other match-up, Lee just needed to play Favors to something resembling a draw. He accomplished that. I just hope he can maintain his high quality play as his minutes creep up with O’Neal out.

Harrison Barnes — A quietly solid night of production from Barnes off the bench. His points came mostly from jump shots, but the majority of his five misses were on slashes to the basket where he was being aggressive. I expect him to dial in those moves over the coming months and to be a serious two-way threat by the end of the season, if not much sooner. Like Curry in his first few seasons, it may take Barnes a bit more time in the weight room before he develops the strength to finish consistently in traffic and with contact. His defensive effort on the perimeter also was excellent, with his quickness and wingspan giving the Jazz fits as they tried — in vain — to find some open lanes for attacking the basket or swinging the ball to an open man.

The remarkable part about the Warriors being 7-3 to start the season is that it feels unremarkable. No one thinks we’ve seen the best basketball from this squad yet, and it’s hard not to be a little disappointed that they’re not 8-2 given the circumstances of the loss in San Antonio. If you extrapolate a 70% win percentage out over 82 games, you end up with a 57-win team. That would be the Warriors’ highest win total since the year after they won the NBA championship. So while a win like this over Utah may already start to feel routine and mundane, it’s part of something that’s anything but. The Warriors’ ability to make these games unremarkable is a remarkable sign of just how far they’ve come.

Adam Lauridsen

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Not sure if someone already posted this, but Dedmon was signed. Quite happy about that.

Very nice to see the Warriors not just beating teams they should beat but doing so convincingly and without drama. This is what the very good teams do.

Can’t say enough good things about what having Bogut anchoring the middle does for this team. He starts breaks with quick, precise outlets, never selfishly demands the ball but will score if you get it to him in good position, ferocious defense, great attitude and character–just love having the guy. No center has reminded me of my favorite non-warriors center that i’ve watched, Bill Walton, as much as this guy. I’m Mr. Happy these days… (until I watch the Niners suffer yet another injury and baffle me with their play-calling)

Thurston Hunger

Six minutes left, could have brought 2 subs in and given them more meaningful action.

And wasn’t Dedmon over be the sideline in the first half but then yanked back and never appeared until 3 min of garbage. Hmmmm….

And Kuzmic with two iso’s for the limited line scrub sub, that’s just not going to happen.

Oh well a small thing to nit pick about…

Thurston Hunger

Not a fan of Dedmon and Kuzmic on the floor together at this point. MJax had a chance to give either of them some run with the first unit in the first half, just in case they are needed for foul trouble or worse vs the Grizz, and decided to pass on it.

Thurston Hunger

Third quarter let down, Again. Barnett nailed it. The ball movement dried up. Hero ball and lazy shots and poor ball rotation when they did pass…and the Jazz hit some jumpers and the W’s kept going under the screens, but it paid off as Utah did not really hit that many. There was a big miss by R Jeff on an open 3.

Small ball was tried, Lee at center and I believe the W’s lost 3 points, 16 lead down to 13 against a weak Jazz team. W’s cannot play D. Lee at the center vs Grizz.Would have like to have seen Dedmon or Kuzmic get a little opportunity experience with the big boys tonight.

Not sure which came first, Speights minutes reduction or his diminishing effort. I hope it is clear to Speights what he needs to do, I’m not sure what MJax wants from him. But playing him a little with 3 or even 4 starters might pay off a surprising dividend.

And D. Lee on the second unit with a solid green light will get you points and free throws.

Condolences to the Jazz, us W’s fans can relate to a team that is seen as bad, that the refs give them no benefit of the doubt. Even on their home floor. Weird to see the W’s getting a whistle advantage, but they did tonight.

As El T says above, the Jazz are tanking. But while the W’s did so in 2011-12, that was after things did not pan out.

For Utah to tank before the first game of the season is bad news…like pulling out of a fast break and then dribbling your way to a 24 second violation.

Back on Rush, who knows what orders he has from on high. Remember how Curry allegedly wanted to come back, but

Thurston Hunger

I thought it was a commandment…

Zume

Gordon Walker – In the time of Walton i lived in Oregon and he was my favorite. I also think of Bogut as “Walton-like”. Hard to explain but it is true. Thank you for the good write up here. This team also reminds me of the Blazers in those days. Team ball, Lucas is not like Lee that is for sure but they both have their strengths and weaknesses. High Bball IQ. Lucas was the enforcer and defined that role for me.